Brutal Asset, page 22
“Nice holographic projection table, General,” Chet commented.
“Aikens, you are a menace. I shouldn’t even let you glimpse it.”
“Relax, Sir. The Coven owns the company that built yours. The one we have is the next generation higher, a prototype,” Chet said with a smug grin.
“General?” Tanya interrupted before Chet could really antagonize Creek. “Would you click on the hyperlink marked ‘note one’, please.”
The General tapped the image on the appropriate icon on the map, which was at the end of a side tunnel. The link opened a photo and text description.
“From what this says, the explorers snuck into the mine through an old waste tunnel on the backside of the mountain. Apparently, the Colonel had a tunnel blasted out the back and rails laid for removing waste rock. That tunnel was only used for a short period then abandoned. The mine hobbyists found the opening which they describe as mostly closed in and managed to squirm into the mine. The main entrance was located too close to the pit mine which still had security around it,” she said. The sound of her voice threatened to destroy my focus on the planning and she immediately felt that through our bond. She gave me a pay attention look.
“Unless they’re complete idiots, they’ll have mined that entrance,” one of Creek’s aides said.
“Ah but we have our own answer to explosives don’t we Christian?” Tanya answered.
“Yeah, that shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. What about security around the outside of the mine and on the mountain?” I asked.
Another aide automatically brought up the satellite view, dialing the thermal down to the point where we could see the white hot dots representing individual Lokis moving and hiding around the mountain. Several much cooler shaded dots were also moving with some of the Lokis.
“Who or what are those?” Creek asked.
“Vampires from a Mexican branch of the Coven who have chosen to side with the Spawn, General,” Tanya answered in a cold voice. “We will be removing them as well.”
Creek raised both eyebrows as he took in her lethal tone.
“Any idea where they would hold hostages?”Gina asked the group at large.
The mine map expanded to take up the whole table top. Chet spoke up.
“I’ve been thinking about that, Gina. It’s basically a set of tunnels carved more or less along a flat path into the mountain. But it does vary up or down by as much as ten feet. Further back in the mine, the explorer group mentioned that the tunnel rises up and levels off along a hundred meter straight line. This apparently became a central landing point for the ore that was mined. There are eleven small side passages or maybe you could call them rooms, all along this part.”
He remotely zoomed in the section in question, causing the two aides to look up in anger and consternation at his ability to take control of their map. For his part, Chet just simply smiled and then opened a linked photo and comment box, which showed the corridor in question in pretty good detail.
“It appears that this central point is drier than most of the tunnels and these rooms would make good cells and headquarters, plus it’s pretty deep into the mountain.”
“Alright, let’s plot this out. Focus people!” the General said, looking at the map.
I focused on Tanya, as she did on me, our personal link active and busy.
Chapter 29
We spent another two hours hashing out the assault plan. During that time the Coven 747 was refueled and made ready for the Arizona. Planning done, Gina and I headed over to Reagan Airport, a DHS agent giving us a ride.
Once we boarded the giant plane, the air crew closed up the aircraft door and we rolled out of the hanger. I cleared the doorway of the plane and found Tanya right in front of me, a determined look on her face to match the resolve the bond told me was in her heart.
“I’m going with you, Christian!” she declared.
“I know,” I answered. My own emotion was probably reading as resolve to her, but she didn’t know what that resolve was. “I think we might do rather well as a team, don’t you?”
I had surprised her, but after a pause, she nodded and smiled. “Oh yeah, we should be absolutely perfect as a team.”
We’ve never really fought side by side, the circumstances never falling into place. We had sparred against each other, but that had eventually ceased as our bond made it impossible for either of us to get an advantage. I was thinking that same link would make us a really tough team to beat.
“Hey Chris, did you see those Pentagon weenies’ faces when I took over their table?” Chet’s voice said from behind me.
“Yeah, that rocked their world. Bet they’ve got IT people swarming over everything trying to block your access. Listen, I’ve got a thumbdrive that I want to look at,” I said, tossing him the flashdrive.
“Yeah, let’s plug it in at my station,” he said, waving for me to follow. I grabbed Tanya’s hand and towed her after me, glancing at her gorgeous blue eyes and smooth white skin every few steps. There was the slightest pink outline of the silver burn on her otherwise perfect skin, but no other sign she had been hideously burned.
The plane was massive, and laid out with offices and rooms instead of rows of seats, at least in the front of the plane. Chet stepped into a large room in the center of the fuselage where another computer modeling table stood. He jacked the thumbdrive into a USB port and opened it.
“One file, titled ‘Brutal Asset’,” he said, a holographic image of an operating system window opening in front of us. He waved his hand at the file and it opened.
My photo stared back at us, just under the title ‘Project Brutal Asset’. After that was a physical description and a biographical history of my life. Education, work experience, and complete police reports from my family’s murder. Pictures of my grandfather and grandmother, high school photos of me wrestling and playing football, NYPD Academy graduation and even shots of me in Vermont with Agent Duclair and Gina, all swam by as Chet waved his hand through the images.
There was a section titled subject evaluation.
Subject asset is defined by the trauma of his childhood. The only survivor of a home invasion and family homicide, he is essentially a loner, having spent much of his formative years ostracized both by peers and by his own choice. Paranormal abilities may have manifested at the onset of puberty. Extremely strong ability to expel extra dimensional entities has been observed by many credible witnesses. Subject was raised by his paternal grandfather(see bio), who supported and fostered the exorcism activity. Subsequently, asset has been trained in multiple disciplines of close quarters combat with and without weapons, and is skilled in wilderness survival, tracking, emergency medical techniques and mountaineering. NYPD Academy selection criteria indicates placement in top quartile of candidates. Scholastic scores were high across all subjects and aptitude tests indicated high adaptability coupled with a flexible world view, as well as strong comprehension and problem solving abilities. Subject is deficient in emotional intelligence and may have stunted social skills as a result of adolescent isolation. Strongly independent, but capable of team work interaction. Asset Gordon is driven by extreme anger, directed at both extra-dimensional entities and internally as a form of self-hatred.
Recent introduction to hemivore and lycanthrope societies produced a dramatic transformation of asset’s physical and paranormal capabilities. Subject has demonstrated physical strength and speed far in excess of standard human ranges as well as enhanced senses. At least on par with average specimens of both hemivore and lycanthrope races. Does not display any aversion to argent compounds (silver) or to sunlight. Massively accelerated metabolism has been demonstrated by fuel intake in the eight to ten thousand calorie range (potential weakness, see note 1). Never observed ingesting human hemoglobin. While physical attributes have been documented, paranormal abilities remain conjecture. The following observations have been made:
Apparent ability to render ammunition inert, may extend to other compounds as well (i.e. explosives),
Ability to affect distance targets in various manners, including displays of kinetic energy, dissolution of solid objects, and interference with complex electronics (i.e. hardened military avionics),
Enormous output of quantum particles observed at times of asset’s displays,
Enhanced ability to banish extra-dimensional entities,
In addition, subject is potentially in contact and allied with an advanced extra-dimensional entity of strategically important power. Observed manifesting in an ursine form, said entity displayed abilities to penetrate secure facilities and inflict damage on scale with large air-delivered ordinance. Bear form was four to five times larger than any existing terrestrial land carnivore.
(see note 2 – minor class god entities).
Intelligence provided by anomalous resources imply a weakness with regard to depleted uranium delivered using specific methodology. Operation Hostile Takeover utilized six Praetorian grade operatives against Brutal Asset, with weaponized DU. Objectives included acquisition of asset, determination of DU effectiveness, and determination of Praetorian effectiveness against asset.
Embedded video was recorded on high speed, high definition full spectrum camera. Results were as follows: Asset devastated all Praetorian grade operatives along with two vehicles in under two seconds; acquisition and containment unlikely with current techniques,; DU as weapon against asset inconclusive. Video is inconclusive, as asset’s speeds exceeded recording equipment capabilities.
A black video box had been inserted and when Chet flicked his hand over and clicked on the play symbol, a high quality picture opened of Toni and me walking home from her school. The video was taken from maybe the second floor of a building across the street and at a slight diagonal to the two of us. The female jogger appeared, stumbled against me, while the blue Toyota Four-runner screeched to a halt. After that the picture got garbled as Toni and I disappeared in a blur, the SUV exploded, and the operatives on the street met blurry demises.
Conclusion: Brutal Asset remains top acquisition objective, preferably intact and alive. Alternative post humus collection is second tier objective should all other attempts fail. Potential opportunities include subject’s attachment to the child in the video, Antonia Velasquez, as well as parent. Attempts at access through hemivore and lycanthrope organizations has exceedingly low probability of success.
The file ended there, with no names of authors, organizations or other identifiable information.
Chet spun around and looked at me and Gina (who was standing behind me). Gina’s face was bleak, her eyes wide and suddenly wet looking. Tanya spoke first, her voice loud enough to make Gina jump.
“Mr. Deckert?” she said, directing her voice toward the next room past Chet’s area. Deckert’s crew cut wearing face popped into the doorway. “Yes, Ms. Demidova?” he asked. Deckert wasn’t all hung up on the whole Queen thing.
“Are your men still watching Gina’s family?”
“Yes ma’am. During the daytime a squad of four is on Roy and Antonia Velasquez at all times. At night another four person squad of Darkkin is on duty.”
Gina has one of the best poker faces I’ve ever seen, but this was one time when it failed her. She was openly astonished as she turned to look a Tanya.
“You didn’t think I would leave your family unprotected after that attack, did you?” Tanya asked. Lydia, looking very sleepy, roused herself from the corner of the room where she had watched the video and gave Gina a little hug. “It’s not happening, Gina, so forget about it. Arkady personally told both teams to kill anything that attempts to harm your family.”
Lydia turned her pixie face in my direction. “You, on the other hand, appear to have some secret admirers.”
“You know, some of those pictures in Vermont had to have been taken by someone on Duclair’s team or even Duclair herself. Maybe she’s our best lead,” I observed.
“Already on it!” Chet said. “Ever since I saw that request by General Creek my antenna has been up. I have a number of search programs looking for information, crawling all over the web.”
“What’s the whole ‘deficient in emotional intelligence’ bit, anyway?” I asked.
Lydia patted my shoulder. “It’s a very nice way of saying that you’re dumber than a box of rocks when it comes to other people’s feelings,” she said. I gave her a hurt look and she just shrugged. “Just saying!”
“They know a lot about me,” I said, dismayed at the depth of the knowledge displayed.
Tanya snorted. We all looked her way. “Not so much. They don’t mention Kirby, or the Packs, or your body blades that you make or our bond or your ability to heal, or the Tear of God!” she said, ticking points off on the ruby red fingernails of her left hand.
“So….who the hell wrote this? What are Praetorian operatives? And where did you get it?” Lydia asked, then yawned.
I explained about Director Nathan Stewart and his wereverine assistant. Gina added her own observations.
“I’ll see what I can find out about this Stewart dude and his…assistant,” Chet said, immediately waving hands at his computer interface.
“Were wolverines are very rare and really, really tough!” Lydia said. She had a lot of contacts in the were world, in fact most of her romantic encounters occurred in that society.
“I’ll see what my contacts know of her,” she said, popping a Bluetooth earpiece in place. Tanya and I headed to the plane’s galley for a snack for me. After that we figured to get her a snack from me.
Chapter 30
Davis-Monthan Airforce base is located just outside of Tucson. The Coven 747 touched down just after dark, and was again guided to a hanger big enough to shield it from both the sun and any prying eyes that had access to satellites. Lydia had explained that the Mexican vampires had had full use of Coven resources which included a rather staggering number of commercial satellites.
From there we, which included Tanya, Lydia, Arkady and a large number of security folks from both species, loaded into the Rig, which General Creek had ordered flown across the state by C5 cargo jet. Immediately heading South, we finalized the attack plans and went over our individual gear. Mine came out of the locker I kept aboard the Rig. Black battledress pants, steel toed boots, fitted performance tee shirt (also black) and combat vest with attached gunbelt. My twin thigh holsters held Glock model 20s with extended twenty round magazines. The model 20 looks like a Glock 9mm model 17 on steroids, the frame beefed up to handle the higher operating pressures of the much more powerful 10mm round. The pistols were stock, except for the addition of new rear slide back plates made by a company called FSSG. The plates were, in fact, selector switches which turned my semi-autos into full auto machine pistols at the twitch of a finger. Not something I used a lot, but a nice option, especially if you found yourself in a tight spot...a tight, furry, toothy kinda spot.
I added the contents of the bundle I had snagged from my tiny corner of Tanya's cavernous closet. Two silver darts and a silver plated bowie knife sheathed in kydex thermoplastic. All from the night I first met Tanya. I hadn't used them during my summer hunts, the mono edges on my hands, arms and feet being vastly more effective, but my introduction to the wonders of depleted uranium and its effects on my aura suddenly made backup weapons look like a really good idea. The darts went into ballistic nylon pouches that were originally designed for expandable batons. The kydex sheath of the bowie used military MOLLE clips to attach to the back of my vest, secure but reachable with either hand. After that I loaded spare mags of ammo (lots and lots of those), filled the built-in hydration pack with water and packed my pockets with hi-energy food. Then I chowed down while watching Tanya gear up. She had a skin tight black catsuit that looked like a combination of spandex and some flat black carbon fiber material, her twin tungsten carbide swords sheathed crosswise on her back and a series of double-ended throwing spikes holstered on thigh platforms. The spikes were really cool, solid silver coated with a protective black latex that let her handle them with bare skin, but peeled away from the points when thrown through skin or hide.
The suit fit her it was painted on, an effect I greatly admired. She caught me ogling her and gave me a cool smirk. Somehow I dragged my attention away from the more interesting portions of her anatomy to notice the bulges on both forearms under the black material. That told me she was wearing her tungsten bracelets, which let her block just about any edged weapon with her arms.
The rest of the team was gearing up as well, each with his or her own preference for weapons and gear. The older vampires favored edged weapons, many with silvered edges, while the humans and younger vamps leaned more toward firearms. Most of Deckert's men were packing AA-12 full automatic shotguns, each gun loaded with thirty-two silver flechette 12 gauge shotgun shells, packed in a round drum. The guns were able to fire at 300 rounds per minute, but had almost no recoil thanks to an ingeniously simple, but effective extra long bolt and recoil spring setup. Made from mostly stainless steel, the AA-12 is simple to use and extremely reliable, as well as devastatingly effective. Each man also carried a smaller twenty round drum of FRAG-12 high explosive anti-personnel rounds that had been modified from the original steel casing to one made of silver. The rounds armed themselves at three meters from the muzzle and had a range in excess of 150 meters. Nice little addition to the mix. For places where they might need a little bang, but three meters wasn't possible, each security team member also carried a pair of modified flash-bangs that were loaded with silver nitrate. These would be almost as dangerous to the vampires in the group as to the Lokis. The humans got fourth generation night vision goggles, the rest of us already rigged for seeing in the dark. The Rig's driver spoke over the intercom, telling us that we were crossing the border into Mexico, the crossing point being conveniently unguarded by Mexican police. Whether that was the result of a diplomatic request or a well placed bribe I didn’t know, but the effect was the same. As none of the people on board, with the exception of the driver and Mary Alice, were US personnel, we were deniable by the US government.
